3. Buck gets really into giving Tuna the best enclosure he can. He tests different types of bedding, wheels, food dishes, insect and pellet combinations, and enrichment toys. He makes her dig boxes filled with pom-poms and fleece pieces and puts pellets and grubs in it so she can root around and hunt. She doesn't like having her nails trimmed, so he learns to put her in a shallow, warm tub of water and do it while he cleans her paws. She always grunts unhappily, but he massages her little ears and scratches between her quills until she's at least not angry with him. When she's curled up in her soft microfiber towel after, she eventually pokes her nose out at him. "Hey, baby girl," he says softly, tucking her up against his neck. His coworkers make fun of his love affair, but he can't help it if Tuna is perfect. She hangs out in the hoods of his sweatshirts, and he introduces her to all the animals from a safe distance and with everyone largely separated by the wires or glass of an enclosure. Patty's the only one that seems to be scared of Tuna, but Patty's afraid of everything. Also, Tuna would probably eat her if she was given half a chance to.

4. During a fire evacuation, Buck and a couple colleagues stubbornly will not leave until they can get everyone out. Ross is the hardest to move, but they have a truck coming back for them. He reluctantly hands Tuna's travel carrier off to Sasha, one of the trainees, and tells her to keep her safe and watches them leave in a van loaded with animals. An LAFD engine rolls up to the center, and firefighters pour out, yelling for them evacuate. "Then fucking help!" Buck snaps. "With what?" one of the firefighters asks through his mask. Buck leads him to where Ross is unhappily tied to be moved. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me," the guy says. "Do I look like I'm kidding?" Buck asks. "I'm not leaving him." "Yeah, I can tell," the guy says, sounding dry and amused even with a face shield on. He clicks on his radio. "Kinard here. Cut a line around the perimeter. I'm calling Harbor for a water drop to get the vegetation less flammable. And someone get a trailer. A big one." He takes the shield off his face, revealing a sweaty but really, really handsome face. Then he fits it on Buck's face after he pulls off the N95 mask, and clean oxygen hits his lungs for the first time in hours. "Alright, uh," he looks down at Buck's work ID, "Evan. Show me how to move an alligator." His team has the horse trailer on the way back, and Tommy helps Buck and a few others move Ross inside. "Hey, bud," Buck says, scratching across his head. "You'll be okay." "Do you have the keys to the car that's parked over there?" Tommy asks, and Buck nods. "Okay, I'm going to lead the truck down the hill." "Thank you," Buck says, blinking back tears. "For helping with him. I know, they're big and scary and--" "Hey, Ross is just a big, scaly dog, right?" Tommy teases, smiling wide. He even gingerly scratches the same spot Buck had, looking awed as he does.

5. They get down the hill, and the van is there. Buck launches himself out of the back of the horse trailer just as Sasha steps out and holds out the carrier. Inside is a small, scared ball of Tuna. "Hey, I'm here, I'm here," he soothes, reaching in and scooping her up. "Sorry, is that a llama?" Tommy asks, pointing to the other horse trailer. "Alpaca," Buck corrects. "Thank you. Seriously, thank you." He hugs Tommy, mindful of Tuna, and they watch him hop back in the center's beater car and go back up the hill. Two months later, he's at a school during an assembly day, and there's a fire truck doing safety stuff for the kids. He sees a familiar face and waves, and Tommy jogs over. "Evan, right?" he says, grinning. "Y-yeah," Buck says, smiling. "And who're all your friends?" Tommy asks. So Buck introduces him to Snoopy, Patty, Jax the skink, and Peony the skunk. Then he reaches under the table and carefully lifts a carrier past the tablecloth. "And this is Tuna," he says. "Oh, I remember you," Tommy says, peering into her carrier. "She gets stressed when I'm not at the center, so she gets to hang out under our table and protect me from second graders," Buck explains, smiling. "Tuna, this is Tommy. He and his friends saved your house, so be nice." She hisses lightly in response. "They take a while to warm up to people," he explains sheepishly. "Mm, and what about her handler?" Tommy asks, smiling at him. Buck swallows and feels his heart slam in his chest. "Uh, not as long," he says, licking his lips. "Good to know," Tommy says. "You free Saturday night?"

6. Buck is at a school doing a visit, and there's a boy who asks a lot of questions named Theo. He's happy to answer them, and Theo waits from a respectful distance after the assembly is over while Buck gets the animals back in their carriers and hands them off to Sasha and Ben, his helpers for the day. But after, Theo wanders off and can't be found. Buck runs outside and down a few blocks, on the phone with his sister at the dispatch center, and he sees a field. Crouched in the field is Theo. "I found him," he sighs. "Let the cops know we're five blocks south in a field behind some houses." And he approaches Theo, who's intently watching a gopher hole. "They stay pretty deep underground," Buck explains. "Especially if anything big is around. They're sensitive to vibrations from people walking or moving, because it could mean there's something big and scary up top." He stays with him and explains gophers and other burrowing mammals until the police and Theo's parents arrive, and he realizes he's been talking to his ex-roommate's son. Buck's son, genetically speaking. He backs off and texts Tommy, and his boyfriend asks if he's okay. Buck doesn't really know, but he invites them over anyway.

7. Theo meets Tuna at Buck's house, since she usually spends weekends with him. The energetic little boy is very gentle and quiet with her once Buck explains they usually hide like gophers, just not as deep underground, and they don't usually stay awake during the day and can be a little skittish. "But she likes you?" Theo asks, carefully stroking her ear. "She does," Buck confirms. "We're each other's favorites." When Connor and Kameron comment on how Theo's never this calm, he's got a way with wild stuff, it rankles Buck even after they leave. "No, they said some, uh, some stuff," Tommy agrees as they wash the dishes. He's wearing one of his LAFD hoodies backwards now, and Tuna is watching the proceedings from inside Tommy's hood. Weeks later, when Tommy hears about the accident at work, they sit and have a long talk about it before Buck applies for emergency placement. When Theo gets brought to the house, it's not a strange place to him anymore. Connor and Kameron came over a few times after that first dinner. So Theo's second question is, "Does that mean I get to live with Tuna, too?" And Buck smiles and squeezes his hand and says, "Yeah, sometimes. You wanna go with me to my work tomorrow?" He's going on temporary leave while Theo gets settled, but he has some things to grab and stuff to check up on first. He'll also have Tuna at home with him full-time while he's off. "And you can meet mine and Tuna's other friends," Buck says, and Theo nods happily.

3. He's cleaning the engine and runs out of chrome polish. Bobby says it's in one of the supply closets, he just bought a couple cases. When Buck goes looking, he doesn't think to ask which one it's in, and it's kind of late. Chimney and Hen are snoring away in the bunks, maybe Sal and Tommy are, too. Then he opens a door and sees Tommy rear back from kissing Sal and turn his back to Buck while Sal is hastily wiping his mouth and yanking his other hand back from...somewhere. There's an audible zipping noise from where Tommy is, and Sal's pants are undone but up. "Uh--" Buck says, gobsmacked. And Sal reaches forward and yanks him inside by the front of his shirt. "Not a fucking word," he says, low and dangerous and it makes Buck shiver a little. "I-I won't," he says as Tommy turns around. His mouth is red, probably from Sal's stubble. "A-and I'm okay with...it," Buck adds, gesturing awkwardly between them. "Y'know, I'm an ally, I don't--" And Sal is grinning, and Tommy snorts and crosses his arms over his chest. "Kid, relax," Sal says, squeezing his shoulder. "We just don't want to get transferred to other shifts. Fraternization rules. My transfer's gonna come up soon enough, though. Until then, keep this between us." Buck nods. "I can do that," he promises, unthinkingly holding up his pinky. Sal stares at it, but Tommy hooks his around it. "Thanks," he says, his cheeks still flushed. When Buck smiles and looks down, they're both still hard. Fuck.

4. It's difficult to not think about it now, though. He wonders if they've always done this at the station, wonders if they're dating or just messing around. A lot of people seem to just want something casual, he's finding. It's fun, it's fine. He's doing fine with that. But he finds himself watching them, which he kind of always did, but now he's looking like there's something else to look for. And it's there. There's smiles, quiet teasing, little touches, considerate things like Sal making a cup of coffee for Tommy with his own or Tommy making sure there's fried eggs with the normal scrambled ones for Sal. Chimney, Hen, and Bobby don't seem to notice. But it's like a neon sign to Buck now. He tries to be so cool and normal about it, he doesn't want to betray their confidence, but he also wants to kind of know everything about their Whole Deal.

5. It comes to a head when he notices them slip away while Bobby is in his office on a call and Hen and Chimney are out on a medical call. Buck makes it three minutes before he goes up to the roof after them, except they're just watching the sunset and standing next to each other. "Come on over, kid," Sal says, and Buck shuffles to them. Tommy looks over at him and says, "Whatever you want to ask, just--" "Are you guys, like, dating?" Buck blurts out. "You know, my money was on 'does it hurt,' he thought you were going to ask to watch," Tommy says, smiling. "Didn't expect that. Yeah, we are." And Buck's brain screeches to a halt at the idea of purposely watching them. "C-cool," he stammers. "Oh, and if you ask what it's like to kiss a guy before a certain day, I win, after and he wins," Tommy adds. "What's the bet?" Buck asks weakly. "Something you'd have to ask to watch," Sal teases, and Buck flushes. "Well, what's it like?" he asks. Tommy reaches over, turns his head, and kisses him. "Like that," Tommy says softly after the kiss breaks. Sal drapes an arm around Tommy's shoulder and grins at Buck. "I'll collect my winnings later," Sal says, and Buck and Tommy both flush. "What's the verdict?" "C-can I try again?" Buck asks, and Sal reaches for him and kisses him.

6. Buck is sitting in an armchair in their living room--he really thought they were just roommates before, and now he feels dumb--and his palms are sweating. In front of him, Tommy's on Sal's lap and kissing him, and they're grinding against each other and moaning, and Buck wants to tell them to just start doing anything else already. He feels like he's going to vibrate out of his skin. But then Tommy's shirt comes off, and Buck watches Sal kiss Tommy's chest and suck on and bite one of his nipples while Tommy pants and moans and grinds down on Sal's lap. He pulls at Sal's shirt, getting it over his head and tossing it away and immediately going for Sal's waistband. "Better get it all off," Sal murmurs, kissing across Tommy's chest. "Wanna make sure you can see everything." It's the closest they've come to acknowledging Buck since they started kissing. They stand and strip, and Buck has been watching enough gay porn in the last few weeks that a couple of hard dicks isn't a surprise, and he's also been in a few threesomes with a guy and a girl. But now he's looking at them with the full knowledge that he more than likely will be having sex with these two guys. He hopes he will. He watches Tommy get on his knees and suck Sal's cock until he's got drool running down his chin, and Buck is pretty sure this is the hardest he's ever been. When Tommy gets on his knees on the couch and puts his hands on the back, Sal reaches down and pulls a plug out of his ass, and Buck is digging his nails into the arms of the chair. All it takes is more lube before Sal is fucking into Tommy, and Buck makes it about thirty seconds before he's taking his dick out. The two of them moan so fucking loud, like they'd been waiting for it, and they all cum so much faster than they probably expected to. But when Buck is shaking with aftershocks in the chair, Sal gets up and bends down and kisses him. "Clean up," he murmurs, pressing the shirt he'd used to clean himself up into Buck's hand. "And you'll get to participate next time. How long you need?" "Uh, five minutes," Buck decides, and Tommy snorts from where he's curled up on the couch. "Okay, well, give us a little longer," Sal says, smiling. "But that's good to know."

7. Sal transfers, heading to the 122 still. The captain from the valley was what he called "Gerrard lite," which had earned a round of winces from some of the other people. "I'll miss you guys, some more than others," Sal says, grinning through the whipped cream on his face. "And some of you I won't get a chance to miss at all." He winks at Buck and Tommy, who are standing next to each other. Later, when he's ducked into a bathroom to clean off, Buck and Tommy slip in and lick some of it off. It's sexy near the mouth and jaw, not so much around the nose. When the door creaks open, Tommy's wiping whipped cream out of Sal's ear and cupping his face, and Buck looks to the door, his heart beating out of his chest. "It's not what it looks like," he says, and Bobby looks totally perplexed. "Buck, they have the same address and wear each other's clothes, I don't care," Bobby says, going to the urinal. "You guys thinking about telling everyone now?" "Well, I mean, we're still figuring out how it works with the three of us," Buck says, and Bobby's heard turns slowly with his eyebrows in his hairline. "That's--you weren't talking to me, were you?" "Uh, no," Bobby says, zipping up and washing his hands. "You three better be where I can see you in the next two minutes." Then he leaves, and Buck covers his very red face with his hands while his maybe boyfriends start cracking up.

2) Maddie has a big circle of friends in LA. There's Josh, yes her supervisor, but he's not like other supervisors he's a cool supervisor, who took pity on her when she first got to LA. She had been sheltered as hell, then broke away completely to travel the country, work odd jobs, even follow this cute girl named Kameron to Peru after befriending her in Seattle.

"So you just went to Peru." Maddie's talking to Karen, someone she's met at this big LAFD non-denominational winter holiday party. Karen is beautiful but there's a ring on her finger and a gorgeous woman in a circle of firefighters nearby who is keeping an eye on her, not that Maddie can blame her.

"Okay, I know what it sounds like, but Coyote Ugly came out when I was in high school and when I left home, one of my first jobs was as a bartender—"

Karen bursts out laughing and turns around, waving the woman over. "Hen! This is Maddie, she lived my dream of running away from home to be in Coyote Ugly."

"Hi Maddie. What the hell?"

"If I never hear that song again," Maddie sighs.

"Come meet everyone," Karen says, wrapping a hand around Maddie's elbow. "Hen's with the 118. They're going to want to meet one of the dispatchers who sends them on the wildest calls."

"Okay, it's not that exciting, I'm a girl who worked at a bar," Maddie says.

"You're a "straight" girl who followed a woman from Seattle to Peru to bartend with her," Karen says. "If you're not queer, you're insane. Maybe you're both! So you'll fit right in."

Everything's going so great. Karen was right and she does fit in, and everyone is a lot of fun, and maybe the bartending story was boring but she's got other ones from her time on the road to match them (no rebar through the skull, though—that's all Howie, whose eyes linger on her as much as hers do on him). Suddenly, though, eyes flick to something behind her, and someone touches her shoulder.

"Maddie?" Evan's here: in LA, at the LAFD holiday party, not in Pittsburgh, like last she'd heard. He's all grown up, with two black eyes and a split lip, and bruises peeking out from under his shirt. "Maddie, I need help."

3) Evan's in the hospital for a full day, getting scans to make sure he had no internal injuries after he "fell" down the stairs. After Mr. Williams—

("Gerry," Evan says, grimacing like even saying his name hurts him, while Maddie thinks: Fucking Gerry?? A guy named GERRY beat up my brother??? My baby brother who he MARRIED the minute he finished high school and turned 18??? GERRY?!)

—had taken out his holiday rage on Evan and left for work the next morning, Evan patched himself up and got himself to LA as quickly as possible. Maddie doesn't want to imagine what he looked like when he left, days ago, if he still looks like this now.

She's only just met the 118, but they come by the hospital to meet Maddie's not-so-little brother and check in on both of them. At one point, Howie brings by someone she hasn't met yet.

"I'm Tommy," the guy says as he leans down to shake their hands. "Howie mentioned you've got a car to get rid of? In as many untraceable parts as possible?"

"Didn't you say you were a pilot?" Maddie asks.

"Guy's gotta have hobbies."

She looks to Evan, who's staring at Tommy, curious and terrified. "Yeah, uh. It's my ex's—my ex-husband's car." Maddie's eyes look down: yep, there's that tan line, no ring. "I just—I don't want him to find me."

"I won't say no sweat because, well." Tommy motions to Evan's hospital bed. "But I'll take care of it. I know a guy."

Howie looks at her and Evan. "Everyone needs a catchphrase."

"That's not my only one," Tommy protests. "I've also got: Hey, I'm Tommy, I'm a firefighter-pilot. What's your name?"

"Little long for a catchphrase," Evan manages.

Tommy raises an eyebrow. "I'll think of a better one for next time."

Maddie hands over the keys and Tommy leaves. A beat, and then Maddie asks: "Next time?"

"Tommy…" Howie sighs. "Is a long story. Let's save it for next time."

Maddie's incredulity turns to interest. "Next time?" Howie winks at her and asks them how he and the 118 can help them out.

4) Not only is Evan hiding out from Gerry, now they're both hiding out from their parents. Or so she thinks.

"No, uh. Mom and Dad—we kinda stopped talking after I left for Pittsburgh," Evan tells her.

"Well that's ironic," Maddie says. "They wanted so badly to keep their kids close that they drove them both away. Now they've got nothing and no one."

Evan nods. Maddie holds out her glass of wine for Evan to toast. "Their fucking loss." Evan clinks his glass, but doesn't seem convinced. He does seem hopeful, though.

5) Maddie's friends adopt Evan. He's a lot younger than them, a lot more sheltered, too, having gone from their controlling family home to his controlling and abusive husband's home.

Howie and Maddie have started to see each other after way too long dancing around their chemistry and attraction.

"Well, you know, we're going to go out on dates and I don't want to like, abandon you—" Maddie covers her mouth when she hears herself. Evan stares at her, totally blank. "Evan—"

"You'll have fun," Evan says, "I know you will. You always do."

That leads to a massive, explosive fight that has them air out everything, all their trauma and grievances, gets Daniel out there on their own terms, has them sobbing in each other's arms, and has Evan deciding he has to move out.

"And I'm signing up for the fire academy," Evan says at breakfast one morning.

"Wow. You've gotta tell everyone how effective their propaganda has been."

Evan smiles a little. "Yeah. But also—this is weird, but—my body hasn't felt like mine for a long time, and I—I want to do something with it that's—something that I want to do, that's mine. 'Cause now you've told me… it wasn't really supposed to be mine to begin with, was it?"

Maddie gets it. They hug and Evan moves out and they're on better terms, trying to meet each other as friends, not siblings. The family they were given turned out pretty shitty; now they're finding the way to become the family they've chosen.

Also, Howie feels less weird staying over when there's no risk of running into Maddie's baby brother in the morning.

"Knock it off. He's not a baby anymore," Maddie says. She would know.

6) Evan is thriving at the fire academy, though the three(?) other Evans try to nickname him Buck and he puts his foot down, declares himself Alpha Evan, lol. He and Maddie still hang out regularly, but more often than not Howie's there, too.

"Hey, can I ask you something?" Howie asks one night. "So, you know Tommy's at the academy right now."

Evan shifts in his seat, picks at his food suddenly. "Yeah."

"He says you're being… kind of distant. You guys know each other, so he figured—"

Evan says, all at once, "He's really hot and so nice and so helpful and I know he'd do anything for me, or anyone, but he's one of my instructors and I just got out of an abusive marriage to my 10th grade bio teacher so maybe Tommy's really nice but he can't be nice to me right now, okay?"

Maddie winces. Howie does, too.

"I get that," Howie says. "It's temporary, though, while he's on medical leave from Harbor."

Evan raises his eyes from his dinner plate. "Temporary?"

"Yeah. He's only got about two, three weeks to go before he's recertified to come back."

"…I guess I can say hi to him," Evan says slowly.

"You weren't even saying hi?"

"Maddie, I panicked! He's so hot! It's not fair!"

"It doesn't have to mean anything, it's just saying hi," Howie says, the picture of innocence.

When Tommy wraps up the unit he was teaching at the academy and goes back to Harbor—well. It starts with saying hi, and they go really, really, slow, but. It starts.

7) Instead of a Doug-style kidnapping and attempted murder, one totally ordinary day someone serves Evan with divorce papers. Social media reveals that Mr. Williams has been publicly out and about with another extremely young thing, so that's probably why he needs the divorce from Evan. He signs the papers and sends them off to be filed. Tommy's going to fly them somewhere to celebrate.

By the time that happens, Evan had finished at the academy and ended up at the 133. "It'd just be weird, you know," Evan tells Maddie. "Working somewhere with your boyfriend, or working at the same house, different shift, with my boyfriend. Maybe I want some space."

"That's a really good point. It's good to have firm boundaries and a solid commitment to work/life balance, especially for first responders who are particularly at risk of burning out without a commitment to living outside of the job," Maddie says loudly to anyone who might be listening, anyone at all.

At the ceremony for the end of his probationary year, Maddie's there and pins his badge for him.

"I'm attempting to do knot work." He held up the mess for Eddie to see, as if it were a puzzle he couldn't solve and maybe Eddie could see what he couldn't.

"Is that the best medium for this?" Eddie didn't do spells, his own abilities were in enough conflict with his faith for him to wrap his head around, but he paid attention when Buck talked about his craft. Buck had said once that knot work was primarily used for severing bonds and working metaphorical concepts. It wasn't a bad medium for Buck, people and connections were his strength, but it didn't sound like it applied here.

"I know, but I've got to do something. You saw the news." Before the power had gone out they'd gotten an alert on their phones that the storm was quickly progressing towards hurricane status. "I can fee this pressure in the back of my eyes building, like a warning sign of some big disaster about to happen." There was real panic in Buck's voice as he spoke.

"I think that's just called a pressure headache," Eddie said, dismissively.

"No, it's real," Tommy said. He'd gone to check the circuit breaker in the mudroom and from the look on his face and the lack of electricity, it didn't seem like they'd be out of the dark any time soon. "I've been feeling it, too, and it's been getting worse in the last hour or so," Tommy said, his expression pained.

The connection between the three of them was different for all of them, but for Tommy, being their paladin, their protector, meant feeling everything they did. Tommy's senses were heightened, not in the same way they'd once been when he was cursed, but they did make sensory information, including pain, real or shared, double for him.

Tommy walked over and kissed the side of Eddie's head, and his tart and sweet cherry flavor flickered across Eddie's tongue. It was brief, but he could taste the same anxiety he'd smelled coming from Buck earlier. Something was definitely off.

Tommy took the empty spot on the couch, laying down on his back with his head in Buck's lap. Buck abandoned the tangled yarn, his fingers playing with Tommy's hair in a half hearted attempt to massage his scalp.

"Can't you just make the rain stop?" Chris suggested. He'd been sat on the floor across from Eddie and Theo, his eyes glued to his phone the entire time the power had gone out, despite the fact that they had all warned him about conserving his phone's battery life.

"No!" Was the resounding response from all three adults. Technically, Buck could 'just make it stop' but dipping into that well was dangerous, and none of them, especially Buck, wanted to deal with the potential backlash that force stopping nature would cost. Small magic and ritual spellwork only, that was the rule.

"Geez, okay, nevermind then!"

Another hour went by. Evan was reading through one of his aunt's old journals, looking for anything he could borrow from, anything he could work with what he had on hand or was compatible with his talents. Tommy was also reading, although from the looks of the two shirtless men on the cover holding hockey sticks, it wasn't about spells and potions. Theo had gotten beyond restless.

Theo's frustration at not being able to go play outside was starting to make him fidgety and irritable. He'd lost interest in the Legos, having thrown one at Eddie's head. He'd missed, but it was as clear a sign as any that the kid needed a nap.

It felt wrong to put Theo to bed in his room alone. There was something about the darkness of a power outage that felt preternatural and a little scary. So, a few minutes later, Tommy came back from the lenin closet with blankets and pillows.

The three of them, Eddie, Theo, and Chris, whose phone battery had, in fact, died, ended up in a pile on the floor.

Eddie listened to the rainfall and the rattling of the wind against the windows that had been steadily picking up in force. He could feel Theo beside him, shuffling restlessly. He remembered nights when Chris was sick with a fever, or the months after the tsunami when Chris had trouble sleeping on his own. He would sing to him until he nodded off. He thought about it for a bit, but only one tune came to mind. He started to hum softly under his breath.

The itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the water spout...

From his spot on the couch, Tommy started to hum as well, picking up the next verse.

Down came the rain and washed the spider out...

Buck followed after him, humming the third verse.

Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain...

To Eddie's surprise, Chris finished out the rhyme with a little less finesse.

And the itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the spout again

There was something heavy hanging in the air when it was done, a kind of anticipating tension that was telling him, telling them, to keep going. Eddie hummed the first verse again, and Tommy followed, passing on the melody to Buck again who passed it to Chris.

On the third go around they begin to speak out loud, reciting their verses in gentle, lulling whispers.

Then at once, they sang together, connected, sharing their collective energy until Eddie felt the tension break with a thunderous force.

4. Eddie makes varsity, he's good enough to keep going through senior year. His parents are talking scholarships and scouting and extra coaching, though, and he's ready to give it up. He's at the field after practice ends one night, hitting balls since he promised he'd lock up the pitching machine after. "Goddamn, what'd that last one do to you?" a voice says from behind the backstop. Eddie turns and a ball sails past him, and he flinches when it hits the boards. But he realizes he knows the person. "Tommy?" he says, squinting. Another ball comes, and he jogs out to turn the machine off. When he's done, Tommy's coming around the fence and bends to grab a ball that had drifted near first base. He tosses it to Eddie, hard enough that it stings a little when he catches it barehanded. "How you been, Diaz?" Tommy asks with a grin, and Eddie feels his stomach flutter. Fuck.

5. Tommy's back in town for something family related, he doesn't say what and Eddie doesn't ask. They end up hitting and fielding for each other, and Eddie asks if he's still playing. "Nah, I didn't go to college," Tommy says. "I enlisted. I'm a pilot now." It explains the near buzzcut he's sporting. Tommy used to have longer hair, almost curly. It would stick up weird when he took his cap or helmet off. Eddie asks him about the Army, finds out he's a helicopter pilot. It's pretty cool, honestly. "I don't know what I'm gonna do," Eddie admits. "I thought about enlisting. My parents want me to be an engineer like my dad." "What do you like doing?" Tommy asks, and Eddie shrugs. "What, you hate everything?" "Nah, I like baseball, don't want to try going pro, though," he says. "I used to dance. Can't really do anything with that. I dunno. I just don't want to sit in an office. You said you're doing medevac, and that sounds like it's actually doing something. Helping people." Tommy looks out to the field for a long moment. "There's stuff you hear and see that's hard to shake," he says finally. "So there's a price. I'm glad I'm doing it, though. Maybe not for the military, but I can do it after. Get hired by a city or something." "How long you in town for?" Eddie asks. "Few weeks," Tommy says.

6. Eddie's at a party, and he goes out back and sees Tommy talking to a few guys. They used to be on the team, too, but between Tommy and Eddie. They still played with him, one of them must've invited him. Eddie tries to not make a beeline for him, but it's not long before he's in the circle and talking about whatever the fuck. Every time he makes Tommy laugh, he feels the beer fizz in his stomach. They end up on a beer pong team together, and Tommy nudges him with his elbow and leans in close to whisper what cup to go for next, that he should rerack after so Tommy can clean up the next one. They win, they celebrate loudly and obnoxiously, flexing and roaring while empty Solo cups get pelted at them. Later, Eddie's gotta walk home and walk off some of the beer. If he gets in late enough, his parents won't wake up. But then a hand lands on his shoulder. "Going my way?" Tommy teases, and Eddie nods.

7. They're cutting through a park and trying not to be too loud, because people will absolutely call the cops on them. But Eddie's leaning against a tree and doubled over laughing as Tommy tells a stupid story from flight training, and he leans against the trunk and tries to catch his breath. When he looks over, Tommy's grinning and then he's not, and then Eddie's reaching for Tommy's neck and pulling him into a kiss. He expects to get punched or shoved or laughed at, but Tommy groans deep and low and puts a hand at Eddie's hip and another in his hair as he kisses him back. They make out like that, desperate and messy, and Eddie's hard in his jeans and cums when Tommy pushes against him, trapping him between his body and the tree. "Goddamn, you're so fucking hot," Tommy says against his neck. He pulls his dick out and there's just a couple fast strokes before he's moaning against Eddie's jaw and cumming on the ground.

8. They don't talk about it. Eddie has to do his own laundry in the morning when he's a little hungover, and he blows off plans with Shannon, who definitely wants to get back together, and he tells his mom he doesn't feel good because the burger place the team went to must've undercooked his food. She fusses over him, and he lets it happen and watches TV in his room. When he gets out of the shower that night, there's a pebble being tossed at his window like he's in a fucking movie. He pokes his head out and sees Tommy leaning against a beat up truck. Eddie slips out, and they drive outside of town to a field and get in the bed of the truck on some musty blankets and make out until they've got their hands in each other's jeans. Eddie gets his dick sucked while he's staring up at the stars, and he hauls Tommy up for a kiss after and urges him down until he's being almost crushed by him.

9. They're eating Burger King after, and Eddie asks Tommy if he had a thing for him before. "Fuck no, you were a skinny little freshman," Tommy says, snorting. "You looked thirteen. Why, did you have a crush?" And Eddie shovels fries in his mouth and doesn't answer, which is answer enough.

10. Whatever's going on with Tommy's family is enough to make him quiet and introspective, but it's not enough to keep him from wanting to fool around. Maybe it's a distraction. Eddie's apparently okay with being a distraction, because he can't get enough of Tommy. If he's not at school or practice or a game, he's with Tommy. One afternoon, Tommy picks him up from school and takes him to a motel room and wraps Eddie's tie around his hand and drags him to the bed. They still don't do more than suck each other off at first, but now they can be naked. Or mostly naked. Eddie's uniform is still mostly on, and Tommy confesses he never hooked up with any dudes from school but it made him have a thing for the uniform. And then he disappears when Eddie's napping and comes back and has lube and condoms, and Eddie's surprised when Tommy hands him both and asks if he's ever fucked anyone before. "I'm not about to have your first time be in a random motel, dude," Tommy says flatly. "And I've done it before. And I like it." So Eddie fucks him and then does it again immediately after, feeling like he could do this all night. Except he has to get home, and Tommy says he's gotta take care of some stuff before he leaves.

11. Eddie goes outside when he sees Tommy's truck pull up. It's late, his parents are asleep. Tommy's in a suit, his tie taken off, and his eyes are swollen and red. "My mom's funeral was today," he explains, and Eddie hugs him tight. He hugs him while Tommy sobs and howls from the safety of his truck cab. He tells Eddie he's leaving in the morning, and they kiss and kiss until Tommy has to leave. Eddie has his email address, his private one. But then a few days later, Shannon drags him into a corner at school and hisses that she's pregnant.

12. Eddie's wandering through the station and comes across old group photos. He scans them, smiling at the big mustaches and old pictures of Hen and Chimney. But then he sees a guy standing next to Chimney and grinning, and he freezes. He grabs Chimney and asks him if the guy still works for the LAFD, if he was still alive. "Yeah, dude, Tommy's just at Harbor," Chimney says, cracking his gum. "You still talk to him?" Eddie asks, and Chimney nods. "C-can I have his number? We, uh, went to high school together." So Chimney does, and Eddie takes three days to call. When he does, Tommy says, "Hello?" And Eddie smiles and says, "Hey. Uh. It's Eddie. Diaz." And there's a long beat and Tommy says, "Holy shit."

3. He admits to Josh that he didn't make the profile, his kid and friend did. He hasn't dated in a long time. Josh is understanding and nice about it, asking how old his kid is and teasing him for getting caught in a 21st century Sleepless in Seattle scheme. It's nice. Josh is nice to talk to. He even flirts with Eddie a few times, and Eddie reasons that flirting back is for practice. So he talks to Josh for a few days, and then he asks Josh if the Chihuahuas hat was the only reason he messaged him. "I mean, I'd like to say it is, but your body is kind of insane." And Eddie is embarrassed to admit it's an older picture from when he first moved to LA. He doesn't take a lot of pictures of himself, not unless his kid is in them. Before he can reconsider what a stupid fucking idea this is, he pulls his shirt off and takes a selfie with the camera tilted down to show off his body, but it cuts off at the mouth. Josh sends back a: "Jesus christ, warn a guy. I'm at work right now." And Eddie apologizes. "Don't be sorry. I'm not mad, just hiding in the men's room now. :P" A moment later, Eddie gets a selfie with dispatch bathroom tile in the background and Josh took his shirt off and took the same photo, except his work pants are tented. Eddie chokes on his water and ends up with a wet chest. He should stop this completely, tell Josh who he is or whatever, but Eddie's getting hard in his basketball shorts. Hard because of Josh. He's hairy and he's in fine enough shape but nothing crazy, but Eddie zeroes in on his pecs. They're rounded, his nipples are hard, and Eddie imagines licking one and is so hard he has to push his hand down on his dick so it stops straining his shorts.

4. He's sexting Josh. He's fucking sexting Josh. There's no more pictures, but Josh is telling him about how much he loves sucking cock and Eddie is telling him he wants to finger Josh and suck on his tits. He's jerking off and shoving his fist into his mouth to keep quiet, and he cannot be sexting Josh. He scrolls back up to the picture Josh sent and squeezes his cock through his orgasm. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," he hisses, using his shirt to wipe himself off. "Fuck." He almost calls Buck, but he knows Buck will just tell him to go for it. He needs someone who can weigh the insanity of what he's about to do. He calls Hen. He goes to her place, and she and Karen are looking at him like he's lost his fucking mind. Karen takes the coffee out of his hand and gives him a glass of wine. "Okay, so how did you end up sending each other sexy messages?" she asks, slowly sitting back down. Eddie downs the glass, even though it's one in the afternoon, and starts from the beginning.

5. Eddie takes a nap on their couch and wakes up with a crick in his neck and a weird semi hangover. He was only out for about thirty minutes, but he's sobered up and needs so much water. He gulps some down and looks at Hen and Karen, who are watching him like he's holding the switch to a bomb. "Okay, so this is easy, right? I just tell him," Eddie says. "It's what you should do, but it might not be easy," Hen says. "But it's not fair that you know who he is and he doesn't know who you are." Eddie drinks more water and leaves. He messages Josh, finds out he's nearly off work, and stops by a store. When Josh comes out of dispatch, he's looking at his phone. He looks up and spots Eddie. Holding flowers. Like an idiot. "Okay, so Buck and Chris made a dating profile for me," Eddie says, and Josh goes pale and then red. "I should've told you it was me, but--" "Yeah, you should've. It's not okay to play with someone's emotions," Josh snaps. "I wasn't playing!" Eddie protests. "You're straight!" Josh all but yells, and like five people turn and look at them. "I'm...not," Eddie says, shifting nervously. "But I'm not gay. I'm...there's a word that I can't remember because I was like three glasses of wine deep when Karen pulled it up. Believe it or not, I've only dated a few people. Ever. It's hard for me, I have to feel connected to someone or I'm not interested, and people usually want more before then or they think I'm interested and I'm just being nice or--just, I swear, I wasn't playing. I liked talking to you. A lot. About everything." He raises his brows pointedly at the last word, and Josh blushes and smiles a little and looks away. "You and I didn't have a good time working together. We barely talk when we're at the same parties or hang outs. I liked getting to actually know you and you actually getting to know me, okay?" Eddie says, and Josh looks at him for a long moment. "So I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't say anything sooner. If you don't hate me, do you want to maybe get a drink or something?"

6. When Josh takes the flowers, Eddie half expects him to throw them at his head. But Josh traces a finger over a rose petal. "No one ever gets guys flowers," Eddie reminds him softly. It's something Josh had bemoaned. "No, they don't," Josh agrees, his voice equally soft. "I'm still a little mad, but...a drink sounds nice." And when he looks at Eddie, Eddie can't help but curl a hand around his neck and kiss him. The flowers squish between them, and Josh pulls them away and presses close as he kisses back. Eddie really can't believe how much he likes him, likes this. They go to a bar that Josh knows, and Eddie explains the whole story. Josh teases him about it. Eddie likes that he's teasing with a twinkle in his eye. They end up facing each other on their barstools as they talk, and Josh's hand is on Eddie's thigh when he kisses him again. The thing is, Eddie really does need to work up to more. But he also really likes how it feels to kiss Josh. They make out in public, which Eddie hasn't done since he was a dumb high school student kissing Shannon between classes. And after, when they go their separate ways, Josh needs him a text. He's in bed with his pants open, his dick is hard in his underwear, and he's got a thumb hooked in the waistband. Eddie sends one back with his clothes completely off, because he was just about to get in the shower, his hand covering and pushing down his cock with the root visible over the heel of his palm. He won't have full blown phone sex with his son in the house, but they text and send pictures and mostly silent videos until Eddie's showing him the cum on his stomach and wrist and Josh is showing off the mess on his thighs. "Next time, I want to watch you," Josh messages. Eddie can do that. He asks if Josh is free Friday night.